ABSTRACT
During the Christmas holidays I watched a television program of college choirs singing a variety of Christmas carols. There was a reputed international flavor, with French, Swedish and Chinese carols included.1 I was reminded of my own upbringing in the Episcopalian church. I recalled long choir rehearsal every Thursday night at St James in addition to the Tuesday afternoon one for elementary and junior high school members, in preparation for each Sunday Mass. Rehearsals during the Christmas season had a special anticipatory spiritual and emotional beauty, all directed towards midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. And even though I fell asleep during my earliest years in the Christmas Eve choir, preparations for the Mass, the event itself, and family traditions afterwardthe meal of fried chicken, potato salad, homemade rolls, iced tea, and dessert; the opening of presents; our retiring at 5:00 am-engendered feelings that were probably similar to those of many of the television program’s participants and audience.
